


Episode 5: Canonical

by ireactions, SpaceMatriarchy



Category: Supernatural;, Wayward Sisters - Fandom
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Episode: s13e10 Wayward Sisters, F/F, Female Friendship, Gen, Parental Jody Mills, Sassy Claire Novak, Wayward Daughters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-06 07:55:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15190271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ireactions/pseuds/ireactions, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceMatriarchy/pseuds/SpaceMatriarchy
Summary: Donna Hanscum investigates strange sightings at the Saint Paul Public Library while Claire Novak discretely joins a gathering of SUPERNATURAL fans for their monthly fanfic reading.





	Episode 5: Canonical

**Author's Note:**

> Story by ireactions with dialogue by SpaceMatriarchy

******bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:04 p.m.**

_There's soft murmuring and the gentle hiss of air conditioning. Then there's soft footfalls along floors both hard-tiled and carpeted. On top of all of that is a clipped, hurried step._

**CLERK:** (politely detached) "Welcome to the Saint Paul Public Library. Can I help you find something, officer?"

 **DONNA:** (cheerfully hurried) "Sheriff, actually, and full disclosure, I'm wearin' a bodycam! Don't worry; I'm the one who oughta worry because everything I do is being recorded! Not filmed, though; darned optics on all these lenses are a bust! But there's still sound and I wouldn't want anyone saying anything they wouldn't want caught on tape and I think it's good to tell everyone that the mic is hot, the power switch is broken, and I can't turn this off."

 **CLERK:** "Sure, whatever, Sheriff -- "

 **DONNA:** "Donna Hanscum."

 **CLERK:** (indifferent) "Sheriff Scum."

 **DONNA:** "Ah, actually -- "

 **CLERK:** "How can I help you?"

 **DONNA:** "Point me to the ladies, wouldja? Had to chug four coffees just to stay awake through that bodycam briefing!"

 **CLERK:** (almost by rote) "Ground floor restrooms're being cleaned, people've been sleeping in the second floor stalls -- and there's a _Supernatural_ book club on Level Three doing their monthly fanfic reading and those get pretty heated. I'd head down those stairs to the basement archives if I were you. Women's room is on the left."

 **DONNA:** "Thanks loads!"

_Donna's footsteps head off into the distance._

**CLERK:** (blandly) "Just watch your step; people go down there to shoot up and they never throw their needles in the bin."

 **DONNA:** (voice off in the distance) "Gotcha!" 

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:06 p.m.**

_The sound of chairs scraping across the floor and then --_

**SINARA:** (teenaged girl, faintly Indian accent) "Neal! Why the voice recorder? Did that come with this study room?"

 **NEAL:** (neutral American, probably mid-50s) "It's my turn to take the meeting notes, Sinara."

 **SINARA:** "Does our club budget cover a voice recorder?"

 **NEAL:** "We had a sale on these at the shop and I should use my employee discount for something. Although I'm amazed you kids even know what a voice recorder looks like."

 **LIV:** (older than Sinara, American) "Hey! Not a kid. I've been legal for five years, Neal. Sinara's the only one here in high school ― "

 **SINARA:** "I graduate next year!"

 **LIV:** "And Bell here's like the world's oldest college student."

 **BELL:** (a cultured female voice, mid-40s) "Liv, I'm the Classics Chair at St. Catherine's University and hardly the most senior."

 **SINARA:** "Is there an actual chair? Good cushions? Solid back support?"

 **LIV:** "Sure hope so; why put a whole generation of students into insane debt if you can't kick back in comfort?"

 **NEAL:** (reflective) "Back in my _Star Trek_ fanzine days, we had a physics professor and an engineering major. All they did was nitpick. 'Spaceships can't lose speed in space; there's no gravity.' 'Light speed means infinite mass.'"

 **BELL:** "I think my presence here has been of benefit to all. As much as I've enjoyed everyone's turns of plot and character, the grammar among you is appalling. Neal, your run-on sentences are incoherent, Liv's grasp of quotation marks suggests human speech is a new concept to her and the way Sinara handles prepositions may qualify as a crime against language."

 **SINARA:** "Oh, about that, Bell -- I read your Claire Novak fanfic last night."

 **LIV:** "Yeah, me too -- Neal and I finished reading the draft when we were bussing it here."

 **BELL:** "Gratifying. I know we're waiting on a fifth person -- "

 **NEAL:** "Yeah, we got a new girl this month. Signed up an hour ago. Think she's running a little late. I only got her handle -- "

 **BELL:** "Still, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism and considered feedback -- "

 **LIV:** "Bell, your _Supernatural_ story was just a little off-brand."

 **SINARA:** "Bell, your fanfic sucked."

 **NEAL:** "I think calling what Bell wrote 'fan fiction' is just false advertising."

 **BELL:** "What -- ?"

 _We hear a door creaking. A new voice says,_ "Hi," _but Sinara talks right over the newcomer._

 **SINARA:** "Holy crap, Bell! I mean, you've got Claire Novak at a police academy trying to hide angelic powers. Meatsuits don't keep angel grace; Claire wouldn't have angel powers."

 **LIV:** "There was some stuff that seemed a little off like Claire living in Pontiac, Michigan being an amateur auto mechanic -- I mean, it was interesting, but it wasn't right for the character."

 **BELL:** "What's wrong with adding a point of regional charm?"

 **NEAL:** "Bell -- you do know that Pontiac, Michigan and Pontiac, Illinois are two different towns that're four hundred miles apart and the Claire character grew up in Illinois, right?"

 **SINARA:** "That's all in _The Rapture_ book, Carver Edlund's totally clear on the geography. Have you even read it?"

 **BELL:** "A small error -- "

 **SINARA:** "It's almost like you wrote a story about a trainee cop who's secretly an angel and just gave her the same name as this one-off nobody from _Supernatural._ "

 **BELL:** "Oh, come now! Given Claire Novak's blank slate as a character -- "

 **LIV:** "She's not a total blank? There's plenty of raw material even from her one and only appearance. Claire should be dealing with her dad abandoning her as a kid, the trauma from getting kidnapped by her own mother and getting possessed by Cas -- but your Claire doesn't even mention her parents."

 **BELL:** "I went my own route. View the story on its own terms -- "

 **SINARA:** "That's not the point with fanfic! The point's to make something that slots into this universe! Looking for stories and spaces between the books that readers can fill in, but you didn't even do that! You totally ignored what Claire's story would be!"

 **BELL:** "What story is that?"

 **NEAL:** "Claire's life was pretty much destroyed from the age of 10. Kind of like Kirk with Kodos the Executioner. Many a zine mined that backstory for childhood horror and Claire should be the same."

 **SINARA:** "Just look at this character in _The Rapture_ : her daddy blew her off to become Castiel's bitch and left her and Mom with no idea what was going on. And from her point of view, the thing that took Dad tried to take her over too, went back to Dad and then they both walked out of her life forever. Throw in a kidnapping, watching Jimmy Novak get gutshot and Mom go psycho -- there are so many directions you could go with this character."

 **LIV:** "Although all those directions would all be kind of similar because -- I think it would be really, really, really hard for Claire Novak to be a functioning member of society at this point."

 **NEAL:** "I wonder if Carver Edlund would've ever brought the character back for something."

 **LIV:** (grim) "Maybe to use her as a victim of the week in an opening prologue. That dude kills anyone who isn't Sam and Dean."

 **NEAL:** "Claire probably ended up a bag lady screaming at pigeons."

 **SINARA:** "Or a basket case in a straitjacket who'd spend the rest of her life on tranquilizers. Or a crackhead living in a box. Or a serial killer. Or a basket case who escaped her straitjacket and tranquilizers to live in a box as a crackhead before she became a serial killer. Claire Novak would basically be a bus crash of a person."

_Someone clears her throat. Someone who isn't Sinara, Neal, Liv or Bell._

**LIV:** "Oh, our newbie's here. Sorry, didn't see you. Dreamhunter08 at gmail dot com, yeah? What's your name?"

 **CLAIRE:** "Claire Novak."

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:12 p.m.**

_Sound of a faucet before the water stops. Then a hand dryer whirring. Footsteps. A restroom door creaking open and shut. Then a ringing phone._

**DONNA:** "Hiya there, Jodio! How's the day off treatin' ya?"

_There's a slight phone distortion on Jody Mills' voice due to the phone._

_**JODY:**_ _"Day off? Hardly. You try having a day off with these kids. Alex is a mess over spending more time in paperwork for nursing school than actual nursing. Patience has been hiding in the basement ever since I suggested a career selling insurance... and I think she's scared of Alex."_

 **DONNA:** "Little heavy-handed on the kids' careers there, aren’t ‘cha?"

 _ **JODY:**_ _"For today. I'll be back to locking up drunks and writing parking tickets tomorrow and then they'll miss my undivided attention. How's that bodycam demo going?"_

 **DONNA:** "Bad for Saint Paul PD; only the microphones and the cell phone hookup work! I'm talkin' to you through the earpiece, but the cameras get no picture and mine was the only one that even turned on today."

_Sound of Donna's footsteps._

**DONNA:** "But I'm not complainin'! Gives me a chance to look into reports of some typewriter monster that's been haunting this here library."

 _ **JODY:**_ _"Typewriter monster. Donna, should we be talking about this if it's all being recorded?"_

 **DONNA:** "Won't be a problem; nobody at Saint Paul HQ's going to be listening to hours of me walking a beat with a broken bodycam when I'm from a department that's outta town."

 _ **JODY:**_ _"You know, you've been calling a lot since that business with your niece. And I'm glad we're talking shop, but you think you might want to talk about what we haven't talked about?"_

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:15 p.m.**

**LIV:** "Awk- _waaaard._ "

 **NEAL:** "Claire, I know I said this before, but I think we should all say it again -- "

 **BELL:** "We were not talking about you."

 **SINARA:** "Yeah, it's a total coincidence that there's a Claire Novak in the _Supernatural_ books and you've got the same name."

 **CLAIRE:** " ... okay?"

 **SINARA:** "And you can be like, totally relieved, right? Because no matter what, there's no way your life is as messed as the Claire Novak in the _Supernatural_ books."

 **CLAIRE:** " ... Sure."

 **LIV:** "We're really sorry, Claire."

 **BELL:** "Yes, apologize to the young lady of whom we weren't speaking; pay no mind to how every single one of you tore into my story without even a glimmer of constructive criticism. Excepting you, of course, Claire."

 **CLAIRE:** "Uh."

 **SINARA:** "Hey, Claire, did you read Bell's story? We usually take an hour to just read together first, but we were all such keeners today."

 **CLAIRE:** "I did read it. Yeah. I read it. I don't actually read a lot outside of work, but I read this."

 **BELL:** "Oh, everyone's skewered my output today; one more scathingly caustic spiel won't kill me. What did you think, Ms. Novak?"

 **CLAIRE:** "I liked your story."

_There is a long silence._

**CLAIRE:** "I mean, I know Michigan was wrong, hosts don't keep angel powers after angels leave -- that's not how things work in the real world."

 **LIV:** "Uh."

 **NEAL:** "You mean, that's not how it works in the world of _Supernatural_ , right?"

 **CLAIRE:** "Yeah. That's what I meant. But I liked -- I liked the idea that things could be different. It was like -- that story was saying, 'I can look at Dad walking out on me to join a war in heaven, I can see Mom getting possessed, and I can still decide: I'm going to build a life that's past that. I can be someone else.'"

 **NEAL:** "You mean -- you liked how _Claire_ was saying that."

 **CLAIRE:** " ... yes? I mean. _Yes_."

 **SINARA:** "I did not get that at all from Bell's story."

 **LIV:** (apologetically) "To be honest, Bell's story gave me the sense that she's never read any Carver Edlund books and she just threw the name 'Claire Novak' into a story she was already writing."

 **BELL:** "Ha! Now, just as a side-note, I brought us all some cheatsheets on how to use semi-colons correctly and also a guide on conjunctions."

 **LIV:** (awkwardly) "And continuing to be honest, I've been getting the impression that Bell doesn't really know the _Supernatural_ books at all and thought this was a meetup for general fantasy fiction and is too embarrassed to stop coming."

 **BELL:** "Ha! Oh, I also brought a guide on the passive voice and the active voice for -- "

 **SINARA:** "Oh my God, Liv's right, you've never read a single Carver Edlund book in your life!"

 **BELL:** "I read the Wikipedia entries. Look, all the other writing groups in this library were so accomplished; everyone in there's put out actual books! But this felt like a less judgemental space because none of you are actually writers!"

 **LIV:** "Hey, screw you!"

 **NEAL:** "So this whole time, we've treated you like a friend and you've been looking down your nose at us like our writing's beneath you -- "

 **LIV:** "Wait, this is why you never shut up about grammar; that's all you've got to bring to the table!"

 **SINARA:** "Do we have a table in this meeting room? I only see chairs."

 **CLAIRE:** "Look, not to interrupt your crisis in fan fiction, but I came here to ask about a monster made of letters?" 

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:19 p.m.**

**DONNA:** "Strange sightings around here for the last few weeks!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"Sightings of?"_

 **DONNA:** "People in this library reported seeing something that looked like a person -- but made of typed letters. This man of letters or whatever would pounce on someone -- and then vanish along with the person."

 _**JODY:** _ _"How many victims?"_

 **DONNA:** "Hard to say. Because the strangest thing about it -- there weren't any bodies left behind or any missing persons reports filed. So I thought I'd start at the bottom of this building and work my way from floor to floor and see what turns up."

 _**JODY:** _ _"Careful, Donna -- "_

 **DONNA:** "I got my service weapon on hand, Jodes, don't you worry about me.."

 _**JODY:** _ _"I'm a little worried about you -- we still haven't talked about it. Have you talked to anyone about it?"_

 **DONNA:** "I've gone forty-five days without talking to women about a man in my life; howsabout we make it to sixty days and then we'll see?"

 _**JODY:** _ _"I don't think this is healthy -- "_

 **DONNA:** "Healthy's doing what we'd be doing if we weren't heartbroke and shattered. Healthy's doing what we were put on this Earth to do for our friends and family and partner police departments. Healthy's combing through libraries for monsters made of letters."

 _**JODY:** _ _"You and Claire! You're both the same. There any lore on this -- this typographical monster?"_

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:21 p.m.**

**CLAIRE:** "Human shaped figure, but made of typed letters that're floating in the air. It's been seen around here; anyone know anything?"

 **NEAL:** "I know there's some college hazing ritual to drop acid and wander through the stacks."

 **LIV:** "And there's been a lot of weird being talked about ever since the library turned the washrooms into safe injection sites and left collection boxes for the syringes."

 **SINARA:** "Why can't people just put the needles in the disposals? Why they gotta leave 'em on the floor? Honestly, you give an inch, they take a mile."

 **CLAIRE:** "So, nobody knows anything about this creature -- "

 **BELL:** "Oh, it's called the Canonical."

 **LIV:** "Huh? What? What's that?"

 **NEAL:** "Is that from a _Supernatural_ book?"

 **SINARA:** "Not if Bell knows about it."

 **CLAIRE:** "What's the Canonical?"

 **BELL:** "Fifteenth century legend. There was a priest, Cardinal Peter Caravejes, outraged at the creation of the printing press and how the printed word could be mass-produced and distributed without the Church having any control over what ideas would be sent out into the world."

_There's the sound of a zipper. Of papers being pulled from a bag._

**BELL:** "I've been doing a little research on this for my book. I have my notes here, let's see -- "

_There's the sound of papers in hand as Bell flips through them._

**BELL:** "The Cardinal was so angry at the masses conceivably having books besides the Holy Bible that he summoned -- or became -- a demonic force that would feed on movable type and wipe it off the face of the Earth. A being called the Canonical composed of the very type it would consume to destroy, leaving behind only the words thought fit to remain in the Canon."

 **CLAIRE:** "How'd you find all that out?"

 **BELL:** "From the folklore collection here; I've been writing up my research before our meetings."

_We hear the sound of papers being rearranged._

**CLAIRE:** "Does the -- the Canonical -- does the Canonical have a weakness?"

 **BELL:** "A weakness?"

 **CLAIRE:** "Yeah, like how iron burns demons, salt blows away ghosts, Borax hurts Leviathans -- "

 **SINARA:** "A Leviathan? Is that a thing?"

 **CLAIRE:** "No, forget it. The Canonical. It's got a weakness?"

 **BELL:** "Oh. The Canonical's weakness is that it doesn't exist because life is not a _Supernatural_ novel."

 **CLAIRE:** "Yeah? 'Cause mine is."

 **LIV:** "What?"

 **SINARA:** "I have to ask -- is your name really 'Claire Novak' or is this some sort of extended LARP that no one else is playing?"

 **BELL:** "The Canonical isn't real."

> _**Reality is not what you thought.** _

**LIV:** "Uh, who said that?"

> _**Reality is nothing but a medium.** _

**NEAL:** "What the hell?! That's not a voice. That's like -- that's like -- "

> _**Reality is but a page on which we are all inscribed.** _

**SINARA:** "It's like the words are just being -- being written into my brain! You're all getting that?"

> _**The question is not what is real.** _

**LIV:** "Yes! What is it? What's doing that?" 

> _**The question is simply: what is worthy of the Canon?** _

**CLAIRE:** "Show yourself, whatever you are!"

> _**I already have. You perceive me in the only form you can grasp. I am the Canonical.** _

**CLAIRE:** "Why're you here? What d'you want?"

> _**To feed.**_

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:28 p.m.**

_**JODY:** _ _"It had to be tough, Donna -- when Doug broke up with you, it wasn't just you -- he was turning away from your entire life."_

 **DONNA:** "Okay, sure, but here's the thing -- I had the boys dig into the database at the library here. The attacks started when some hybrid Bibles got shipped here for study."

 _**JODY:** _ _"Hybrid Bibles?"_

_Sound of a keyboard, Donna's fingers typing away._

**DONNA:** "Yeah, from the fifteen hundreds when movable type was coming into use. 'Parently, there were a few traditionalists who had the first half handwritten and the second half printed. But something's up -- "

 _**JODY:** _ _"The hybrid Bibles?"_

 **DONNA:** "They were all reported as getting lost in transit, except -- I can see 'em here in the files! Photographed and scanned page by page!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"I don't get it. What do these hybrid Bibles have to do with Doug?"_

 **DONNA:** "What? No, they’ve got nothing to do with Doug. Listen, the hybrids -- they're here. They're all here. But they got reported missing because -- and here's the spooky bit -- the type's all gone."

 _**JODY:** _ _"Gone? Like the pages are all blank?"_

 **DONNA:** "No, no -- the handwritten pages are still here -- but the printed text -- it's not. In fact -- I've opened a few other books lying on the shelves down here -- and all their words seem t'be missing too."

 **JODY:** "Every book in that basement's blank?"

 **DONNA:** "Not every book -- I found a couple that still have words. A couple of _Supernatural_ novels."

 _**JODY:** _ _"Oh no. Donna, I don't like being within five feet of those and if I were you, I'd stay far away -- "_

 **DONNA:** "These books are still readin' right. So where'd all the other words go?"

> _**Right here, Sheriff Donna Hanscum.** _
> 
> _**I have been here all along.** _

_**JODY:** _ _"Donna?!? Who's that talking!? What's that voice -- that voice that's not a voice?!"_

 **DONNA:** "Oh, Lord -- "

 _**JODY:** _ _"Donna! What's going on!?"_

 **DONNA:** "Well, there's this figure made of words and letters in the shape of a man standin' right in front of me."

> _**I am the Canonical. You are apocryphal. You will be consumed.** _

**DONNA:** "You keep your letterized hands to yourself or I'll shoot! Back off, Cannon Cal! You got the count of three! Three!"

_Four gunshots ring out._

_**JODY:** _ _"Donna? Did you get it?!"_

 **DONNA:** "Ah. Well, yes and no.”

 _**JODY:** _ _“Donna!”_

 **DONNA:** “I think I hit it, but it's still standing in front of me and it just turned the bullets into the actual word 'bullet' and then it seemed to, uh -- eat the words."

> _**I am the Canonical. You are apocryphal. You are unworthy of the Canon. You will be consumed.** _

_**JODY:** _ _"Donna, get out of there!"_

* * *

 

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:35 p.m.**

**CLAIRE:** "Hey, Canonical, you hungry? There's a pancake place across the street. How about we get a short stack and talk it out?"

> _**I was made to consume these pretenders to the sacred word of the Canon; I was forged in fire to consume this abomination of movable type; I feed on the unworthy.** _

**NEAL:** "The doors! They're locked! We can't get out!"

 **SINARA:** "What? That's impossible!"

 **LIV:** "These study rooms don't have locks!"

 **BELL:** "This is madness! Even if the Canonical is real, what could it want with us?"

> _**I was made to devour the words produced by heathens and infidels, the unfaithful who should have stayed unlettered.** _

**CLAIRE:** "Yeah, but that was like six hundred years ago and we're in a library right now, so I guess you screwed that up, right?"

> _**A hunter assailed me, imprisoned me in the very lore I was made to defend and purify, splitting my glory across bastard volumes and spreading me across this sphere while this movable type engorged this world.** _

**BELL:** "The hybrid Bibles! But they were all sent here for study -- "

 **SINARA:** "What's a hybrid Bible?

 **BELL:** "Read the damn library newsletters, kid!"

> _**I was reborn in the lower caverns of this institution.** _

**CLAIRE:** "I bet you loved waking up in a library full of books you don't like and finding out that this library is just one of millions all over the world."

 **BELL:** "Well -- probably more like three hundred and fifty thousand."

 **CLAIRE:** "Point still stands -- since you lost the war, Mr. Canonical, how about you retire and look into teaching English in Korea or something?"

> _**The** **biblia sacra** **s dominance has faded, but within the depths of this building, I found a new Canon to define this world. A text made of the blessed word immortalized in that which I was made to destroy.** _

**BELL:** "This new Canon. What is it?"

> **Wendigo. Bloody Mary. Devil's Trap. Simon Said. Born Under a Bad Sign. Lucifer Rising. Dark Side of the Moon.** _**And so many more. The sacred text of reality itself given shape with a history and scripture for the entirety of all existence divided across a hundred and four volumes.** _

**CLAIRE:** "What are those?"

 **SINARA:** "A hundred and four -- those are all the _Supernatural_ novels! Even the unpublished ones!"

 **NEAL:** "They're all published; there was a whole re-release last month -- "

 **BELL:** "I got this library to buy several sets -- "

 **SINARA:** "Why? You've never read 'em."

 **BELL:** "Because all three of you like them -- "

 **LIV:** "Wow, Bell! That's so nice of you."

 **SINARA:** "Yeah, except that unleashed some ancient evil that's gonna kill us all."

 **CLAIRE:** "It's not killing anyone. I won't let it." (shouting) "Do you hear me?! You failed to wipe out the printing press, and whatever you're trying for today, you're going to fail on that one too!"

> _**You think you can dictate to me? You. A sniveling orphan making vows you cannot keep. How many broken promises have you lived through now? And how many will die for your empty word?** _

**CLAIRE:** "I'll protect these people -- "

> _**Are you sure, Claire Novak?** _

_There's a blast of wind. A snap of electricity. And then --_

**KAIA:** "Because you couldn't protect me."

* * *

  **bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:39 p.m.**

_There's the sound of creaking wheels scraping against a floor and grinding metal._

**DONNA:** "Good gravy, there're a ton of _Supernatural_ books in this basement! I think this library might've bought the whole darn print run!"

 _ **JODY:**_ _"You think a wall of shelves of_ Supernatural _books can hold that thing back?"_

_There's several slamming noises and also the sound of some paperback books landing on the floor._

**DONNA:** "Absolutely! Blocked off this whole hallway! Just need to make sure to keep reshelving every time a book gets knocked over, hold the wall in place -- and I s'pose I can live out the rest of my life in this basement with _Supernatural_ books, a water fountain and this stapler that got left on the shelf."

_There's another slamming noise. Donna screams. There's the sound of a book whipping through the air and then a strange wheeze._

_**JODY:** _ _"What was that?"_

 **DONNA:** "Cal tried to grab me through a gap in the shelf. But I lopped off his hand at the wrist with a copy of -- this one's called _The Rapture._ That hand made of letters -- now it's becoming pages of paper."

 _**JODY:** _ _"Anything on them?"_

 **DONNA:** "Let me see."

 _ **JODY:**_ _"_ The Rapture. _That one I've read. Claire's in that story."_

_There's the sound of crinkling paper._

**DONNA:** "Jody. Claire's in this story too."

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:41 p.m.**

**CLAIRE:** "Kaia -- " (furious) "No, no -- it's not you, it's not -- you're just pretending to be her -- "

 **SINARA:** "Oh, hey, welcome to our _Supernatural_ group. I'm Sinara -- "

 **LIV:** "Sinara, get back!"

 **** **BELL:** "That's the Canonical."

 **KAIA:** "I'd never pretend I wasn't."

 **CLAIRE:** (in agony) "You're not Kaia. Kaia's dead, you're just a shapeshifting word jumble -- "

 **KAIA:** "I'm so much more than that, Claire. I'm from the very depths of your soul -- "

 **CLAIRE:** "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

 **KAIA:** "I'm what's haunted you for every moment since that other world. I'm what you dream of when you sleep and what you think of the second that you wake. I'm the emptiness in your heart when you see this world alone; I'm the grief you bury every time you save someone because no one you save will ever be me."

 **NEAL:** "The Canonical really likes the sound of its own voice."

 **KAIA:** "I'm the regret inside you every time you realize you only ever knew me for less than a day. I'm the memory you obsess over because I'm only a fragment and that's all you'll ever have of me -- "

 **CLAIRE:** (voice shaking) "Stop it."

 **KAIA:** "I am everything you feel for me. I'm the fear that what you're hanging onto is a broken memory of someone you didn't know and even then, you'll still hang on because you have nothing else. I'm the story you have to live."

 **CLAIRE:** (breathing hard) "Kaia. I would give _anything_ to save you -- I would give anything to save her -- "

 **KAIA:** "Don't feel bad, Claire. Your life's been nothing but one broken promise and then another. Your father promised to protect you; he signed his body away. Your mother said she'd always be there for you; she left you all alone. And now you're just like them."

 **CLAIRE:** "Stop doing this -- stop _using_ her this way!"

 **BELL:** "Alright! Jesus, I don't know what the hell this is all about, some lover's spat, I assume, but you -- Kaia! Canonical! Whatever! What are you doing? What do you want?! Some of us have classes to teach in the morning!"

 **KAIA:** "I awakened into a new world. I have adapted accordingly. But I was weak after so many centuries -- until I chose a new Canon in these chronicles you love so dearly and when a teacher wrote my origin down by hand and restored me to form, function and purpose."

 **BELL:** "My notes. Everything's my fault today. Terrific."

 **KAIA:** "Your writing binds me to life. And the new Canon lays out the spine of my being and the food that will sustain me -- while the other three have drawn in apocrypha to fuel me and make me stronger."

 **SINARA:** "What are you talking about?"

 **LIV:** "We haven't done anything to help you!"

 **NEAL:** "That we know of!"

 **KAIA:** "You drew them all here -- purveyors of filth and deviance. Creators of apocrypha who held not only that which they printed in ink and pixel but in their hearts and minds as well. But you know these aberrations in other terms. Sam slash Dean and Destiel and Crobby and Samifer -- "

 **SINARA:** "Whoa, that's really homophobic!"

 **NEAL:** "And what does that even mean? We haven't had any slash fic here, not yet -- "

 **LIV:** "Which, statistically speaking, is kinda weird -- "

 **KAIA:** "Oh, your little band wasn't always so little. This gathering originally spanned this entire floor -- and then I converted those fools to type, to apocrypha, taking them from reality and your memories -- and then I swallowed them whole."

 **BELL:** "Oh my God -- "

 **KAIA:** "But you four were spared. Bell for producing that which tethers me to this plane. And Liv, Sinara and Neal for augmenting the Canon, never straying from what was written, deepening without diverging -- and baiting that which will make me strong enough to leave this library."

 **SINARA:** "Uh -- that means… what? Sorry."

 **BELL:** "It's talking about Claire! Obviously."

 **CLAIRE:** (shaking voice) "What do you want with me?"

 **KAIA:** "I exist in a diminished state. I have fed enough only to survive. The Canon cannot be touched. But _you_ \-- you are both Canon and apocryphal and your words within me will make me complete."

 **CLAIRE:** "I won't let you take me -- turn me into type -- "

 **KAIA:** "You stupid fool. I already have."

_Claire inhales sharply._

**KAIA:** "The moment you walked into the room, I transformed everything you are and all that you've lived into words on a page."

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:48 p.m.**

**DONNA:** "Okay, I skimmed the whole thing quicklike -- it's all some kind of -- like some sort of audio transcription thing!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"And Claire's on the third floor, then? Donna, you've got to get to her, you've got to help her -- "_

 **DONNA:** "I know! I know! I'm blocked off -- there's no elevator -- maybe there's a fire exit -- "

 _ **JODY:**_ _(frenzied)_ _"I should never've let her hunt. I should've made her buckle down. She could've been a dentist; she could've been a cop; she could've stayed away from all of this -- "_

 **DONNA:** (barking) "No! She couldn't! Snap out of it, Mills!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"Donna?"_

 **DONNA:** "We live in a world of demons and monsters and wars in heaven and books about the boys and putting on the blinders just gets us walking into walls and tripping down the stairs! Y'think Alex not being a hunter means there's nothing to be hunted? If someone wants to live in a bubble, let 'em! But you can't make someone do that or drag anyone to live in there with you!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"Oh, Donna -- I'm sorry about -- "_

 **DONNA:** "Wait, hang on. I don't think Claire's on the third floor."

_There's the sound of a sheet of paper in the air._

**DONNA:** "I think -- I think I might be holding a piece of her in my hands right now."

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:50 p.m.**

**CLAIRE:** (bereft and empty) "So, I'm just paper now."

 **LIV:** "I think we all are -- "

 **NEAL:** "We can't open the doors because there's nothing outside."

 **SINARA:** "We can't remember the slashfic writers because they've been... digested?"

 **BELL:** "So we're words on a page and within the body of the Canonical."

 **SINARA:** "What font are we in?"

 **BELL:** "Why are we still here?"

 **KAIA:** "Because you serve as a core of the Canon within my form. And so does Claire Novak -- but not the Claire before me here."

 **LIV:** "What?"

 **KAIA:** "You were never supposed to be a wandering hunter. Or a wayward daughter. Within those one hundred and four volumes, the only thing you ever were was a little girl who lost her father. And the only thing that's changed is replacing him with me."

 **CLAIRE:** (quiet) "You can't eat me, can you?"

 **BELL:** "Where are you getting that from?"

 **CLAIRE:** (very softly) "Monsters don't usually have this much to say before they start on a meal. A part of me's part of those books that keep this thing alive -- so it needs me to do something before it can have me."

 **KAIA:** "I need you to give yourself up. I need you to say yes."

 **CLAIRE:** "You can't seriously think I'm going to go along with anything you want."

 **KAIA:** "No. You'll go along with everything _you_ want."

* * *

  **bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:53 p.m.**

 **DONNA:** "Okay, Jodio. I read the transcript and I've got one real solid idea!!"

 _**JODY:** _ _"Get my girl back, Donna. And just in case, I want you to know -- "_

_There's the sound of a stapler and Donna grunting as she puts weight on it._

**DONNA:** "Yeah?"

 _**JODY:** _ _"I'm proud of you for going forty-five days without talking to women about a_ _man."_

_Sound of wheels creaking. The sound of paperback books falling off the shelf and hitting the floor._

**DONNA:** "Me too." (a breath, then shouting) "Hey, Cal! There's no wall blocking your way here! Have at me, typeface! Come and get me! Come and get me!"

_A roaring wind fills our ears and we hear Donna cry out._

* * *

**34349534-53444565.mp3 - recording date 40305002018-24, 2:55 p.m.**

**KAIA:** "I'm not going to eat you, Claire. Not all of you. You'll be purified to become all you were to serve the Canon -- "

 **CLAIRE:** "I'm only in one of these books!"

 **KAIA:** "And your story will end as it was meant to with your mother holding you in her arms. You'll never have been abandoned. Or made to live with a new father who sold you before you watched the last of your family die."

 **CLAIRE:** "That's not all there was."

 **KAIA:** "No. I'm everything else. I'm why you left Sioux Falls, but you carry me with you everywhere, you always will, and there is only one way you can ever be free."

 **SINARA:** "Can I just say I don't really understand what's going on here at all?"

 **KAIA:** "Let go, Claire. Let it all go and let yourself back into the Canon -- there is nothing left for you outside -- "

 **DONNA:** "Don't be too sure."

 **CLAIRE:** "Donna!"

 **SINARA:** "Who?"

 **** **KAIA:** " _You._ You were consumed!"

 **DONNA:** "I hung onto something that made me harder to swallow than the rest. I hung onto this."

 **LIV:** "Is that a copy of _The Rapture_?"

 **NEAL:** "Hey, what're those pages Donna's got stapled to that book?"

 **KAIA:** "You've brought the Canon within my consumption -- that book being here could turn my being inside out -- "

 **DONNA:** "Bit off more than you can chew, right? Better spit me out before you choke -- "

_There is a terrifyingly inhuman wail and the sound of doors being blown open by gusts of wind._

**DONNA:** "I think Cal here's got his gag reflex triggered and where I'm going, you're all coming!"

 **CLAIRE:** "Bell! Your research notes! Give 'em here -- "

 **BELL:** "Fine, but why -- ?" 

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 2:57 p.m.**

_There's a popping noise like a balloons bursting --_

**SINARA:** "Oh my God -- where are we now? This isn't the study room -- "

 **BELL:** "It's the archives. In the basement!"

> _**This is where I was reborn; your escape is but a temporary respite. None of you belong in this world, none of you are Canon. I'll eat every scrap of your lives, every experience you've ever lived.** _

**NEAL:** "Oh my God, scary humanoid figure made of letters! It's all real! It's all real!"

 **SINARA:** "And it's made of Courier font. Of course."

 **DONNA:** "Keep cool -- everyone just make sure to grab a _Supernatural_ book off the floor, it's the only thing that can hold Cal back! Grab a book!"

 **LIV:** "Okay, I got one, but I got _Bugs_ and if anyone sees _Dark Side of the Moon,_ I'd like that one instead -- "

> _**A book in hand to hold me back. Would you face a tornado with an umbrella? Would you block an avalanche with a net?** _

**DONNA:** "Everyone get back -- "

 **CLAIRE:** "Bell! You've still got a few pages of your research notes! Hand 'em over -- "

 **BELL:** "Here! Here! But why?!"

_There's the sound of paper crumpling in hand._

> _**You have no place in this story. You are all apocrypha.** _

**CLAIRE:** "Here's the thing -- apocrypha burns."

_And then there's the metallic click of a zippo lighter. And then another. And then --_

**CLAIRE:** "Damn. Thing's out of fluid. Anyone got a lighter?"

 **DONNA:** "You betcha."

_There's the snap of a lighter letting loose a flame. There's an animalistic roar and then --_

> _**No!! No!!!! Those pages are my tether! They bind me! They hold me! You cannot _________ _______________________ _________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________** _

_Then the empty soundscape is suddenly filled with murmuring in the background._

_There are confused whispers of voices we haven't heard before, saying, "Where are we?" and "Weren't we in a study room?" and "Did anyone win the Destiel contest?" and other mildly befuddled statements._

**CLAIRE:** "Who are all these people?"

 **SINARA:** "Rebecca! Ryah! Lauren! Ylva! These -- these are all the other people that came for the fanfic reading!"

 **LIV:** "We forgot them -- they disappeared -- but now they're back!"

 **NEAL:** "It's safe to write slash again!"

 **DONNA:** "Claire, look over there. Is that -- is that who I think it is?"

_Claire and Donna's footsteps running forward -- there's grunts as they bang into people as she makes her way through a crowd of disoriented fanfic writers --_

**CLAIRE:** "Kaia -- is that you?"

 **DONNA:** "Kaia died before you came here. Claire, this isn't her; it's an echo, it's -- "

 **CLAIRE:** "A memory."

 _**KAIA:** _ _(a ghostly voice) "The Canonical couldn't hold onto your story anymore, Claire. And I'm a small part of that story before it becomes all yours again."_

 **CLAIRE:** "I don't -- I don't want you to go -- I don't know how to let go, I never had any part of you to hang onto -- there wasn't enough time, we didn't have enough time!"

 _**KAIA:** _ _"Claire. We had seventeen hours. And forty two minutes."_

 **DONNA:** "What's that?"

 **CLAIRE:** "I met her in the hospital. I watched her die. Between that there was only seventeen hours -- "

 _**KAIA:** _ _"And forty two minutes."_

 **CLAIRE:** "And then you were gone -- "

 _**KAIA:** _ _"It was enough."_

 **CLAIRE:** "How?"

 _**KAIA:** _ _"You showed me your scars. You let me in. You held my hand. I was scared. But I wasn't alone anymore. I'd spent my life wanting to sleep; you made me want to wake up and I died knowing you were there and that you cared -- "_

 **CLAIRE:** "If I could go back, I'd want it to be me, I would do anything to change that -- "

 _**KAIA:** _ _(a fading voice) "That was the last thought I had before I died."_

 **DONNA:** "Claire, she's fading --

 **CLAIRE:** "Please don't go -- I don't know how to move on -- "

 _**KAIA:** _ _(her voice diminishing and disappearing by the end) "I'd want you to start with saying goodbye."_

_There is the sound of a door quietly closing._

**CLAIRE:** (a whisper) "Good-bye."

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 4:10 p.m.**

_Against a backdrop of outdoor traffic noises:_

**CLAIRE:** "Donna. Thanks for coming."

 **DONNA:** "This your car? I mean, it's an 89 Subaru Leone, of course it's your car. (fingers drumming on the hood) "Where're you two headed now?"

 **CLAIRE:** "In the last couple weeks, I went to Pine Ridge. Passed through Maine and a bunch of other places. But I think it might be good to go -- go home for awhile."

 **DONNA:** "Always good to follow up on saying goodbye by saying hello."

_A beeping noise. Then:_

_**BODYCAM: "** _ _Warning. Battery at twelve percent. Return to station for charging and upload."_

 **DONNA:** "Well, that's me told. I gotta motor. But the next time you're inside 50 miles of my station, you make sure to ring me up to check in, got it?"

 **CLAIRE:** "You betcha."

_Donna laughs. And then there's the sound of Claire's car door opening and shutting and her engine starting. Wheels against concrete as her car drives out._

* * *

**bodycam 414x04355lf transcription - date 40305002018-24 - assignment sheriff donna hanscum (stillwater) on temporary 24 hr assignment to saint paul police dept for camera pilot project - 4:18 p.m.**

_A car door opens. A body seats itself against the seats. The car door shuts. Radio static._

**DONNA:** "Dispatch, this is Sheriff Hanscum checking in from unit 414. I'll be returning to the station to drop off my cam and run through my exit protocol."

 _**DISPATCH:** _ _(over the radio) "Negative, Sheriff Hanscum -- the bodycam's not a priority right now; we've got a situation and we're sending out every set of hands we've got."_

 **DONNA:** "Situation? Sorry, I was dealing with a crisis earlier -- what'd I miss?"

 _**DISPATCH:** _ _(radio) "Details are fuzzy, but there've been several hundred incidents of people suddenly losing consciousness -- falling asleep at the wheel all along the SD-73, the I-94, all the way from Maine to Saint Paul to Rochester to -- "_

 **DONNA:** "Sioux Falls."

_Sound of Donna's car starting. And then wheels against the road as she speeds away._

**To be continued.**

* * *

_The author would like to offer his warmest regards and appreciation to_ _Ryah Ignis for her encouragement towards this story and for her stewardship of_ The Wayward Project.

_And special thanks to Lauren, aka SpaceMatriarchy, for drawing upon a slumber party with Kim Rhodes (Jody) and Briana Buckmaster (Donna) in redrafting all the dialogue for their characters._


End file.
